Video recorders have long been a mainstay of home entertainment. Videocassette recorders were first to reach wide adoption. Consumers grew accustomed to recording programs on videocassette tapes, which could be played at later time, recorded over, or archived for permanent retention. More recently, digital video recorders (or DVRs) with hard disk memories have grown in popularity. Due to the size of memory, viewers are able to record many programs. DVRs also offer new functionality, such as the ability to pause a currently-broadcast program and allow the viewer to watch the program, while still in progress, from the point it was paused. The DVR plays back the content from disk memory, starting at the pause event, while continuing to record the currently-broadcast content in the disk memory.
Notwithstanding their popularity, one hurdle for a more widespread adoption of DVRs is the price point. With current market conditions, DVRs are still considered expensive for some consumers. Such consumers may have already stretched their budget for home entertainment devices, owning such items as a television, a videocassette recorder, a cable box and/or satellite dish, a personal computer, a stereo, a game console, and the like. Adding another recording device may not be financially practical.
Accordingly, there is a need for lower-cost solution for home entertainment video recorders.